Analysis of The Truth of Woman

Sir Walter Scott 1771 (College Wynd, Edinburgh) – 1832 (Abbotsford, Roxburghshire)



Woman's faith, and woman's trust -
Write the characters in the dust;
Stamp them on the running stream,
Print them on the moon's pale beam,
And each evanescent letter
Shall be clearer, firmer, better,
And more permanent, I ween,
Than the thing those letters mean.

I have strain'd the spider's thread
'Gainst the promise of a maid;
I have weigh'd a grain of sand
'Gainst her plight of heart and hand;
I told my true love of the token,
How her faith proved light, and her word was broken:
Again her word and truth she plight,
And I believed them again ere night.


Scheme AABBCCDD XXEEDDFF
Poetic Form
Metre 1010101 10100001 1110101 1110111 0101010 11101010 0110011 1011101 111011 1010101 1110111 1011101 111111010 10111001110 01010111 010110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 552
Words 105
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 216
Words per stanza (avg) 52
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

33 sec read
123

Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright, and historian. more…

All Sir Walter Scott poems | Sir Walter Scott Books

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